A two-hour Satanic Black Mass slated for Monday night at Harvard University has been moved from campus to a nightclub called “The Middle East” in Cambridge, following outrage at the fascination young people have with evil and their partnering with the Satanic Temple.

Satanic Temple

Fascination With Evil: Students’ Church of Satan

Cardinal Sean O’Malley slammed the Satanic ‘black mass’ slated for Monday night by Harvard students and the Satanic Temple group. He said he was deeply “saddened” that Harvard University is allowing it to go ahead.

“It’s very repugnant,” O’Malley said . “It’s just very disappointing and disturbing. You know, there’s a great fascination with evil in the world. It doesn’t lead to anything good. We’re very saddened. We pray this will pass and there will be healing afterwards.”

The Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club will host ceremony at the Queens Head pub in Memorial Hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Temple of Satan leader

Harvard University president Drew Faust, a noted historian, condemned the club’s decision to sponsor the event, saying it was “abhorrent,” but allowed it under the First Amendment.

“The ‘black mass’ had its historical origins as a means of denigrating the Catholic Church,” Faust said. “It mocks a deeply sacred event in Catholicism, and is highly offensive to many in the Church and beyond. The decision by a student club to sponsor an enactment of this ritual is abhorrent; it represents a fundamental affront to the values of inclusion, belonging and mutual respect that must define our community.”

Faust stated “Consistent with the University’s commitment to free expression, including expression that may deeply offend us, the decision to proceed is and will remain theirs. At the same time, we will vigorously protect the right of others to respond—and to address offensive expression with expression of their own.”

The black mass replaces exalting God with Lucifer. It contains the Latin phrase “In nomine Dei nostri Satanas Luciferi Excelsi”, as well as the phrases “Rege Satanas” and “Ave Satanas” (that are also the only three Latin phrases in the Church of Satan’s 1968 recording, The Satanic Mass). All three modify other Latin parts of the Roman Catholic Missal to make them into Satanic versions, according to the Irish Central.

J. Gordon Melton, a professor of religious history at Baylor University, said the the first recorded black mass, Melton said, dates back to the court of Louis XIV of France, according to the Washington Post. Seeking to use black magic to preserve his love for his mistress, Françoise Athénaïs, he enlisted the help of a renegade Catholic priest who drew upon lingering notions of pagan magic to perform the dark ceremony.The secret sauce: a consecrated host or Eucharist (which Catholics believe is the body of Christ) and a murdered infant, Melton said. “They sacrificed a baby in the first black mass.”The ceremony was to combine “old ritual traditions and surviving ideas about magic” with ceremonies from the church, based on the belief that “there were things you could do to mystically align the universe in your favor,” Melton said.

“I was disappointed,” O’Malley stated. “I was hoping Harvard would see how offensive and evil this was, and please ask them not to do it on their property.”

The cardinal told reporters “I don’t think there is anything we can do to prevent this. There is free speech. But what is disappointing is when there are institutions that are so important and allow this to take place in their venue,” he said.

The mass will be followed by a talk by Harvard Kennedy School of Government lecturer Christopher Robichaud.

St. Paul’s parish in Harvard Square is holding a “holy hour” in response to the mass at 8 p.m. which will be attended by the President of Harvard.

The cardinal also said that the mass “undermines a group of religious people in our community who are hurt and very offended by this.”

In a statement Monday, Faust said, “I plan to attend a Eucharistic Holy Hour and Benediction at St. Paul’s Church on our campus on Monday evening in order to join others in reaffirming our respect for the Catholic faith at Harvard and to demonstrate that the most powerful response to offensive speech is not censorship, but reasoned discourse and robust dissent.”

The Satanic Temple is also responsible for the satanic statue for Oklahoma’s state capitol.

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Author, columnist and rights defender Deborah Dupre' holds American and Australian science and education graduate degrees plus thirty years human rights, environmental and peace activism. Ms. Dupré has led Indigenous Pacific Islander and Australian Aborigine research; has consulted for the UN and other NGOs, holds the pivotal role in 'FUEL'; and has authored over 50 print publications. Contact Ms. Dupré here or visit her website, DeborahDupre.com, to leave a message there.

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